Recently, The Librarians: The Next Chapter, premiered on TNT. In the new version of the franchise, which takes place in Belgrade Serbia, a Librarian from the past, Vikram Chamberlain (Callum McGowan), travels through time and is stranded in the present. Trying to find his way back to 1847, he unwittingly releases magic across the country, forcing him to stay behind to help a new team of Librarians to track down magical artifacts and stop the threat from spreading.

Tonight, an all-new episode, “And the Thief of Love,” the Librarians are off to Paris where victims of multiple robberies are left lovestruck. When they find out that Cupid himself is involved, they must track him down and convince him to help.

Recently, co-creator and showrunner Dean Devlin spoke with SciFi Vision about returning for the new series, how it’s unique from its predecessors, his favorite bits, casting, juggling three series at once, and much more.

Watch the interview and read the transcript  below.



***edited for length and clarity***

SCIFI VISION:   I'm enjoying this new iteration, but for people who haven't seen it yet, why don't you talk about what sets it apart? How is it different from the original and what will fans enjoy about this?

DEAN DEVLIN:   Well, you know, this show is kind of designed that if you've never seen anything about The Librarians before, you can just jump right in and watch the show and understand everything. But if you've seen the original movies or the original show, there're so many Easter eggs throughout the season that you get a little added value. But, you know, we get really excited about the idea of saying, well, what other stories are taking place in the world of the library?

You know, and I think we learned really interesting lessons from Marvel and Lucasfilms that you can tell different stories and still be within the same canon. You know, in the original movie, we were introduced to this idea of this library that's been around forever and is a ridiculously amount of levels below the Metropolitan Library in New York. But when the series came on, we established this idea that there are these annexes around the world, and the series took place around one particular annex in Portland, Oregon. So, John Rogers and I were talking about it and thought, well, what if there was an annex in Belgrade, Serbia in 1847? Why was it put there? Who was the librarian assigned there? What was his mission, and what would happen if, through the course of him using magic when he's not supposed to, he ends up in modern day America, a modern-day world in Belgrade, Serbia?

And it became a different kind of fish out of water story that we got really excited about telling. We thought, okay, so if he's here today, he's a librarian, he's brilliant, but he missed the Industrial Revolution. He doesn't know anything about modern technology. He doesn't know anything about the history of the last several world wars. So, who could we partner with him to fill in the gaps of what he doesn't know? And that's how this whole ensemble was put together.

SCIFI VISION:   How long ago, I guess - did you think that there would be more? I mean, I assume that maybe you've been trying to do this since the other one, unfortunately, ended. Because I know I was upset when it ended back then.

DEAN DEVLIN:   You know, I never gave up. From the day we were told we were done, I kept trying to find ways to bring the show back. Then, this opportunity showed up at the CW, where they had lost all the DC shows, because there was new ownership there, and they wanted to have a new franchise, and we talked about the library. They got very excited about doing it, and we started doing season one with the CW. They were great partners.

Then, I got this incredible phone call from Sam Linsky at TNT, who had been there from the very beginning, from the very first movie, just over 20 years ago. And he said, “Do you think there's any chance that you could move the show from the CW to TNT?” And I was like, “Oh my God, to bring this show back home would be absolutely amazing.” And I have to tell you that people at the CW could not have been more gracious about it. They understood why we wanted to come home again; they were supportive. We had to do a little bit of gymnastics figuring out how to make that work, but they really helped facilitate it and allowed us to be able to move the show. And now we're back home again, twenty and a half years later.

SCIFI VISION:   Yeah, I was just thinking, you need to find a way to bring Leverage in somehow, like a crossover, that's what I want to say.

DEAN DEVLIN:   It would be a good thing.

SCIFI VISION:   Speaking of that, I know you have a couple of guest casts there from The Ark, but I just want to mention, I also noticed the costumes. I love that in the one episode, the little Ark Easter egg there, let's say.

DEAN DEVLIN:   So, Ivana is our costume designer on both shows. She also did The Outpost for us. But what's remarkable is she doesn't go shopping for the clothes on the show. She makes everything, everything you see people wear in every single episode, Ivana has made it. So, it's incredible.

SCIFI VISION:   That's awesome. So, I did want to talk about, obviously at the beginning you have Jacob (Christian Kane) back to kind of introduce them to this universe. Is that something that you can foresee happening again, like trying to bring some of the old cast back, or was that kind of a one-off? Is there anything you can say about that?

DEAN DEVLIN:   Well, I mean, we want this show to be its own show, but I want there to be Easter eggs for the fans who have been for the whole ride. So, you'll find interwoven throughout season one and season two, a lot of things that are especially there for the long-term fan.

SCIFI VISION:   That's fair. Talk about casting this new series a bit.

DEAN DEVLIN:   Well, we got so lucky. You know, not only are they incredibly talented, but they're incredibly nice. This is a show that doesn't have an egomaniac in the cast, and that makes for doing the show so pleasurable. All of them are somewhat like jazz musicians. They really listen to one another. So, when one starts going this way, the other one goes the other way, and there's this fantastic rhythm that they have. Because this is a very fast paced show. It's a lot of smart people who walk fast and talk fast, and they just fell into this beautiful rhythm with one another. Then, off camera, because we shoot in Belgrade, Serbia, everyone's away from their family and friends, and they really had this bond that was created off camera, and that informed a lot of the relationships you see on camera.

SCIFI VISION:   I know obviously you're not doing everything at the exact same time, but you kind of have three [series] going. How hard has that been just, I don't know, doing it, but also even just kind of wrapping your head around getting them all separated. It just seems like a lot.

DEAN DEVLIN:   It's crazy. I will very often be commenting on a storyline in a story meeting, and then someone will have to tap me on the shoulder and go, I think that story is on the other show. Oh yeah, right, right, right.

But hey, I'm so blessed that I get to do these shows and that people find them valuable. You know, I've spent my career doing escapist entertainment, and for most of my career, escapist entertainment has really been thought of as kind of a lesser art form. You know, it's not as important as the dark serialized heavy shows that win Emmys or get Oscars. But when you go through a time of a pandemic and political upheaval and economic strife, the idea of getting to escape for an hour a week suddenly becomes a really valuable thing for people. It's been really touching how many people have reached out and said, “I don't know if I could have gone through my cancer treatment without going to the magical library with you every week,” or “I couldn't have gotten through my divorce without being on that spaceship with you guys every week.” It really shows that we may not be the kind of high art that is celebrated in our culture, but I think we're a really valuable part of the diet.

SCIFI VISION:   Yeah, I mean, I love that; it's fun. It's got a lot of energy, and it's nice and uplifting, which is a very good thing. So, talk about, is there anything, I guess, I want to say like storyline wise that you didn't get to tell before that you kind of were able to adapt for this new series, or do you find like you're really starting completely from scratch with it?

DEAN DEVLIN:   Well, I'd say, for the most part, these are all new stories, but what always happens in our writer's room is we have more ideas than we can serve us. So, there's a big book of stories and ideas that stuff we never got to do. So, when we're in the writer's room, if we ever get into one of those ruts, we go open the book and we suddenly go through, “Oh, we never got to do the story about the puppets.” Puppet episode, here we go.

SCIFI VISION:   Yeah, I also want to talk really quick about [Elaine (Caroline Loncq)]. I really like her character. I didn't expect her; she's different. I didn't expect her to be there. I don't know, I really enjoyed her. What made you kind of add her character to it?

DEAN DEVLIN:   Well, we knew that we wanted this annex to have its own caretaker, but we wanted to do something very different than what we had done both with Bob Newhart and what we'd done with John Larroquette. And when Caroline Lark auditioned, she brought this kind of female John Gielgud character, and it was so delightful and it was so droll, and it was so dry. Yeah, we just fell in love with her, and then we started writing it for her and for her voice. She's a great addition to the show.

SCIFI VISION:   She's a lot of fun. Do you have a favorite artifact from the show? This new series, I mean?

DEAN DEVLIN:   Well, in the pilot episode, Jenkins has gifted them a mini version of the magic door. I have the original magic door in my office. So, it was so much fun when we saw this kind of miniature version that was created for it. So, that might be my favorite.

SCIFI VISION:   [Do you have] other than that, like a favorite storyline, I guess, that you can kind of tease? Something without giving too much away.

DEAN DEVLIN:   Well, I don't want to give any spoilers, but there is one episode this season that my daughter actually got to be the guest star on. So, that one centers around paintings coming to life. So, that's a very special episode for me, both because I like the story, but because I got to see my daughter perform.

SCIFI VISION:   That's great. So, other than juggling all these, what's been the most difficult part for you of the series in particular? I know you've been doing this for a while now, but...

DEAN DEVLIN:   Well, it's difficult, but it's joyful in that we try not to water down our ambitions based on how much or how little money and time we have to make the show. I feel like the audience doesn't know how much a show costs or how long it takes, and that's not their concern. They want to see a great show. So, the thing for us is how do we make this show huge with what we've got and the time we've got? And we've gotten such amazing help.

Episode two of season one, we got to shoot in the Royal Ballet Theater. The finale, we shot actually in the Parliament. They gave us the Parliament to shoot it.

So, it's difficult securing these kinds of locations and getting all these costumes and all these effects, but it's really rewarding because in many ways. I think on a production value level, we surpassed the original show.

SCIFI VISION:   Is there anything that you can think of though that you really kind of had to change around because of that, because of the production costs and that kind of thing?

DEAN DEVLIN:   Well, we had to have a lot more European characters because our guest actors are Eastern European for the most part. So, that is one compromise, but that's why we set the story there. So, it didn't seem out of place.

SCIFI VISION:   Do you have a favorite Easter egg, either from this show or from one of the other shows that you can tease a bit?

DEAN DEVLIN:   Oh, I don't want to give any spoilers out, but there is a character that might surprise people that show up in two episodes this season, including the finale. And that character just filled me with joy when the character showed up.

SCIFI VISION:   All right. So, I'll have to look for that. I'm looking forward to the finale…You said season one. You are already starting another season?

DEAN DEVLIN:   We are halfway through shooting season two.

SCIFI VISION:   I was going to say, I thought that I read that it was picked up for a second season. That's awesome. That's great.

DEAN DEVLIN:   That's the remarkable thing about being back at TNT is not only did they want the show to come over, they immediately green-lit season two after watching it. They didn't wait to see what other people thought. They believed in us. They believed in the show. And I think that's also important for fans, because it's hard to commit to a new show if you don't know if it's going to continue. You know, you get very excited, you watch a show, and then you find out, oh, they're not doing another season. So, the fans know for sure they get at least two seasons.